J Sci Food Agric 1996,70,25-28

Biscuit-Making Quality Prediction Using Heritability Estimates and Correlations

Maryke T Labuschagne*, M C Brooks Coetzee and Char1 S van Deventer
Department of Plant Breeding, University of the Orange Free State, PO Box 339, Bloemfontein, Republic of South Africa (Received 6 March 1995; revised version received 27 June 1995; accepted 26 July 1995)

Abstract: The aim of this study was to predict biscuit-making quality by using correlations between and, heritabilities of, the most important soft wheat quality characteristics. A full diallele cross was made between six spring wheats. The parents and 30 F , hybrids were used as experimental material. Percentage vitreous kernels, breakflour yield, farinograph absorption, farinograph development time and alkaline water retention capacity were highly heritable and were also significantly correlated with sugar-snap biscuit diameter. Selection for these characteristics should lead to improvement of biscuit-making quality. In general, softer kernels and a weak dough with a low water absorption were desirable for good biscuit-making quality.

Key words : biscuits, quality prediction, heritability, correlation.

INTRODUCTION
Response to selection for quality depends on the heritability and genetic variance of quality traits and any unfavourable correlated response with other important characteristics, in particular grain yield (Fischer et a1 1989). The total amount of variation under genetic control is seen as heritability. The extent to which response to selection for a given trait can be expected or observed is reflected by its heritability (OBrien and Ronalds 1987; May et al 1989). Correlations, although reliable only for the range of material tested, may point to relationships that can be utilised in making a selection programme more effective (Baker et a1 1971). A correlation coefficient between two quality attributes that is unusually high suggests a strong heritable association and possibly a narrow gene base (Gaines 1991). Soft wheats fall in a distinct market class and have milling and baking properties conditioning them for specific products (Yamazaki et al 1981). In this study only biscuits were considered. The principal criterion for good biscuit-making quality is the diameter increase during the baking process. A large biscuit diameter is considered superior (Finney 1989; Vetter 1989; Rogers

et al 1993). All characteristics associated with biscuit diameter, as measured by the sugar-snap biscuit test, were given consideration in this study. Very little information is available to the plant breeder on heritabilities and correlations of soft wheat quality traits, especially for South African conditions. The aim of this study was to predict biscuit-making quality by using correlations between, and heritabilities of, the most important soft wheat quality characteristics.

EXPERIMENTAL

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

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A full diallele cross (Griffing 1956) was made with the following spring wheats : Penewawa (soft white), Hyden (soft white), Zaragosa (soft red), Gamtoos (hard red), Edwall (soft white) and an advanced breeding line, M29568 (soft white). With the exception of Gamtoos, all entries had good soft wheat quality as measured in terms of the sugar-snap biscuit test. The experimental material consisted of the six parents and 30 F , hybrids. The hybrids consisted of 15 crosses and 15 reciprocals. A complete randomised block with four replications was used. the trial was planted in the Northern Cape irrigation areas, and sprinkler irrigation was applied.

J Sci Food Agric 0022-5142/96/$09.00 0 1996 SCI. Printed in Great Britain

26 The seed of each of the parent lines and F , hybrid lines were harvested separately. The following quality characteristics were measured on the harvested seed by the South African Wheat Board: hectolitre mass (with a chondrometer), vitreous kernels (percentage of kernels without floury spots), falling number (liquefication of starch by @-amylase), milling flour yield (amount of flour extracted as a percentage of total mass regained), breakflour yield (flour obtained from break rolls as a percentage of total flour regained), flour colour (Kent-Jones and Martin colour grader), flour protein (AACC method 48-12), mixograph (10 g mixograph with water absorption adapted to protein content), farinograph (AACC method 54-12), alveograph (AACC method 54-30), alkaline water retention capacity (measuring the quantity of sodium bicarbonate solution absorbed by the flour and held against a centrifugal force) and sugar-snap biscuit score and spread. The score was based on the physical appearance of the biscuit, mainly the cracks and the colouring of the biscuit. The spread was the diameter of the biscuit measured in millimetres. The sugar-snap biscuit test recipe consisted of the following: flour (40 g), sugar (24 g), shortening (12 g), milk powder (1.2 g), sodium bicarbonate (0.4 g), ammonium chloride (0.3 g), sodium chloride (0.4 g) and optimum water. This recipe is seen as representative of a large proportion of locally commercially baked biscuits. It excludes certain biscuit types, eg crackers. A simple correlation matrix was compiled between all characteristics using GENSTATS. The regression (b) of the offspring on the parents was used to determine heritability. Estimation of heritability and the standard error was based on the computational formulas of Becker (1984). Heritability estimates can be summarised by the following formula:

M T Labuschagne, M C B Coetzee, C S van Deventer

TABLE 1

Significant correlations of quality characteristics with biscuit diameter

Characteristics
~~

Correlations"

Vitreous kernels Breakflour yield Flour colour Flour protein Mixograph absorption Farinograph absorption Farinograph development time Farinograph strength Alveograph strength Alveograph stability Alveograph PIL ratio AWRC
P = 0.01.

-0.379 0.362 - 0.246 -0.226 - 0.491 -0.524 -0.528 -0.275 - 0.452 - 0.568 -0.366 - 0.427

hZ = 2b f 2 SE (b)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Correlations
Biscuit diameter (Table 1) was significantly negatively correlated with water absorption as directly reflected in significant correlations with mixographand farinograph-absorption and alkaline water retention capacity (AWRC), and indirectly by correlation with alveograph stability, which gives an indication of water absorption. Gaines (1990) reported that too much water in biscuit dough interferes with agglomeration of proteins to form an extensive visco-elastic network during mixing. The lower the percentage of water retained, the better the soft wheat quality (Kaldy and Rubenthaler 1987; Finney 1989; May et al 1989). The importance of a soft kernel texture was reflected in a significant correlation of biscuit diameter with vit-

reous kernels (negative) and breakflour yield (positive). Lukow et al (1989) reported that differences in kernel hardness affected water absorption and dough mixing characteristics. Significant correlations between breakflour yield and biscuit diameter was also reported by Kaldy and Rubenthaler (1987). Other significant correlations of biscuit diameter were with flour colour (negative) and flour protein (negative). In the literature, no significant correlations were found of flour colour with any other quality characteristic (Bhatt and Derera 1975; Fowler and De la Roche 1975). Low protein content is desirable for good soft wheat quality, since a high protein content retains water which must be driven off during baking (Autran 1989; Finney 1989; Gaines et al 1994). Both farinograph- and alveograph-strength were negatively correlated with biscuit diameter. The same results were reported by Bettge et al (1989). This supports the statement of Wrigley (1993) that soft wheats should have a weak dough. Biscuit doughs largely lack the extensibility and elasticity characteristics associated with bread doughs (O'Brien and Ronalds 1987; Faridi 1990). Other significant correlations were with farinograph development time (negative) and alveograph P / L ratio (negative). Almost no literature is available on the relationship between these characteristics and biscuit diameter, although farinograph development time seems to be especially important.

Heritability
It should be kept in mind that heritabilities are only significant if the hZ value is three times larger than the SE value (Becker 1984). From Table 2 it can be seen that hectolitre mass, vitreous kernels, breakflour yield, flour extraction, mixograph mixing time, farinograph

Biscuit-making quality prediction

27 Given the phenotypic correlations and heritability estimates, it is clear that selection for softer kernels, a high breakflour yield, low water absorption and a weak dough would yield the most effective wheat flour for this specific type of biscuit test. We also found that selection for these characteristics should lead to rapid progress in biscuit-making quality.

TABLE 2 Heritability estimates and standard errors of several soft wheat quality characteristics
~

Characteristics HLM Vitreous kernels Breakflour yield Flour extraction Colour Flour protein Mixing time Mixograph absorption Farinograph absorption Farinograph development time Farinograph stability Alveograph strength Alveograph stability Alveograph distensibility Alveograph P / L ratio AWRC Biscuit score Biscuit diameter h2 estimates > 3 SE.

Heritability 0.75" 0.63" 0.58" 0.59" 0.24 0.38 0.67" 0.29 0.35" 0.82" 0.55 0.50" 0.04

SE

f0.19 f0.20 - 0.08 f0.13 f0.24 f0.38 - 0.25 f0.35 - 0.06 fO.10 f0.41

REFERENCES
Autran J C 1989 Soft wheat: View from France. Cereal Foods World 34 667-676. Baker R J, Tipples K H, Campbell A B 1971 Heritabilities of and correlations, among quality traits in wheat. Can J Plant Sci 51 441-448. Becker W A 1984 Manual of Quantitative Genetics. Academic Enterprizes, Pullman, Washington, USA. Bettge A, Rubenthaler G L, Pomeranz Y 1989 Alveogram algorithms to predict functional properties of wheat in bread and cookie baking. Cereal Chem 66(2) 81-86. Bhatt G M, Derera N F 1975 Genotype x environment interactions for heritabilities of and correlations among quality traits in wheat. Euphytica 24 59-64. Faridi H 1990 Application of rheology in the cookie and cracker industry. In: Dough Rheology and Baked Product Texture, eds Faridi H & Faubion J M. Van Rostrand Reinhold, New York, USA, pp 363-384. Finney P L 1989 Soft wheat: View from the Eastern United States. Cereal Foods World 34(9) 682-687. Fischer R A, O'Brien L, Quail K J 1989 Early generation selection in wheat. 11. Grain quality. Aust J Agric Res 40(6) 1133-1142. Fowler D B, De la Roche I A 1975 Wheat quality evaluation 2. Relationships among prediction tests. Can J Plant Sci 55 251-262. Gaines C S 1990 Influence of chemical and physical modification of soft wheat protein on sugar-snap cookie dough consistency, biscuit size and hardness. Cereal Chem 67(1) 73-77. Gaines C S 1991 Associations among quality attributes of red and white soft wheat cultivars across locations and crop years. Cereal Chem 68(1) 56-59. Gaines C S, Kassuba A, Finney P L 1994 Influences of eight flours on the hardness of commercial cookies and crackers. Cereal Foods World 39(3) 160-167. Grifing B 1956 A generalised treatment of the use of diallel crosses in quantitative inheritance. Heredity 10 3 1-50. Kaldy M S, Rubenthaler G L 1987 Milling, baking and physical-chemical properties of selected soft white winter and spring wheats. Cereal Chem 64(5)302-307. Lukow 0 M, McKenzie R I H, De Pauw R M 1989 Genetic implications of kernel hardness variation in Canada Prairie spring wheats. Can J Plant Sci 69 667-674. May L, Sanford D A, Finney P L 1989 Soft wheat milling and baking quality in a soft red winter x hard red winter wheat population. Cereal Chem 66(4) 378-381. O'Brien L, Ronalds J A 1987 Heritabilities of small scale and standard measures of wheat quality for early generation selection. Aust J Agric Res 38 801-808. Pearson C D, Rosielle R, Boyd W J R 1981 Heritabilities of five wheat quality traits for early generation selection. Ausr J Agric Anim Hush 21 512-515. Rogers D E, Hoseney R C, Lookhart G L, Curran S P, Lin W D A, Sears R G 1993 Milling and cookie baking quality of near-isogenic lines of wheat differing in kernel hardness. Cereal Chem 70(2) 183-187.

+ +

+0.10

k0.24
& 0.30 +0.15 - 0.08 f0.18 & 0.56

0.55
0.34 0.36" 0.68" 0.35

absorption, farinograph development time, alveograph strength, AWRC and biscuit grain score had high heritability estimates. High heritability for hectolitre mass was also reported by Baker er a1 (1971) and Pearson et al(1981). Characteristics associated with endosperm texture, namely vitreous kernels and breakflour yield, were highly heritable. This was previously reported by Fowler and De la Roche (1975) and Pearson e t al (1981). High heritability values for flour extraction was also reported by O'Brien and Ronalds (1987), but was contradicted by Baker e t al(1971). A high h2 value for water absorption values as measured by farinograph absorption and AWRC was supported by Baker et a1 (1971), May e t a1 (1989) and Gaines (1990), but a low heritability for farinograph development time was reported by O'Brien and Ronalds (1987). A low h2 value for flour colour was contradictory to high h2 values reported by Baker e t a1 (1971) and Bhatt and Derera (1975). Given the high h2 values and high correlation values for breakflour yield, mixograph mixing time, farinograph development time and biscuit grain score one could assume that more emphasis must be placed on these tests for selection purposes.

CONCLUSIONS
Vitreous kernels, breakflour yield, farinograph absorption, farinograph development time and AWRC were highly heritable and were also significantly correlated with biscuit diameter.

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Vetter J L 1989 Soft wheat: View from the AIB Cereal Foods World 34(9) 691-694. Wrigley C W 1993 A molecular picture of wheat quality: finding and fitting the jigsaw pieces. Cereal Fosds World 38(2) 68-73.

M T Labuschagne, M C B C o e t z e e , C S van Deventer

Yamazaki W T, Forde M, Kingswood K W, Greenwood C T 1981 Soft wheat production. In: SOB Wheat Production, Breeding, Milling and Uses, ed Yamazaki W T & Greenwood C T. Am Assoc Cereal Chem, St Paul, MN, USA, pp 1-32.